JT
by elainefr
Summary: I love alternate realities. I toyed with this for about two seconds before I just plunged in. I hope it's okay and please review. Thanks for reading! As always, Don't own, just love fleshing them out.


"Mom, I want bacon and eggs," the brown haired young teenager said as he plopped down at the table across from his sister after tousling her hair slightly.

She watched him take the sports page and gave a review with his own commentary on it while she was absently whisking the eggs and turning the bacon.

"Are you and dad still going out for your anniversary this weekend?" he asked with a smirk that she and his father could never decide from whom he got it. "Don't worry," he held up his hands in mock surrender, "I promise there won't be too much going on here. Just a low key rave with liberal drug use," he joked. "Mom…..the eggs," he nodded towards the pan.

She turned back to the pan to salvage the breakfast that she'd begun.

"Hey pumpkin, you keepin' your mom company?" her husband dropped a kiss on the cheek of his daughter and then his wife once he came in the kitchen. "Smells good in here," he took his normal seat at the head of the table.

She turned back and looked at her husband and daughter. She fixed their plates, before sitting down in her usual spot to join them.

"We should get a dog," the young man suggested between bites of his breakfast.

She looked at her son and marveled at his complete exuberance. He represented all that was wonderful and perfect about being young. He loved life, evident in his glow and rosy cheeks. The brown hair with auburn streaks were trademarks that he'd received from his grandfather…..well that and his name. The natural tousle in his hair and lanky features were clearly from his father. Fifteen for him was everything that she, or any parent, could want. She smiled at him proudly.

"Mom, why are you looking at me like that?" He looked at her, shrugged, and downed the rest of his juice. "Well, I'm meeting the guys before classes, gotta jet," he kissed her on the cheek and just like that, he was out the door.

"Eat!" the little girl said emphatically to the empty plate.

"Here you go sweetie," Trent handed the little girl a piece of bacon and watched as she tore into it. He looked at his wife again, taking in her appearance and mannerisms this morning and he knew. "How long this time?"

"Just breakfast," she raised her eyes to meet his and found her own sadness mirrored in them.

"He's- he would be fifteen now," was his solemn statement.

"Yeah…..our J.T."

He smiled at the nick name that they'd adapted for the son that was never born; Jacob Trenton Lane, affectionately called Jake by his dad and J.T. by his mother.

Sixteen years ago she'd been pregnant and then she wasn't. It had all happened so fast. She had gone into the emergency room because her cramps had become unbearable. The doctor had come in and told them that she was pregnant and in the next breath he'd inform them that she was having an Ectopic pregnancy and would have to have laparoscopic surgery before it ruptured. There were no other options; they took her into surgery immediately. Afterwards they had sat silently in the hospital room, unsure of what they'd felt. The staff was nice, but it seemed like they thought that since they hadn't know about the pregnancy, then there shouldn't been a loss felt. They were wrong. It wasn't until they were home one evening and she was listening to Trent as he strummed on his old guitar that they really talked about it.

"I miss him," she had said calmly. "I know that they think that I shouldn't, but I do."

"Me too," he agreed. He strummed the guitar some more. "So you think it was a boy?"

"Yeah….."

J.T. came in and out of their lives every year. Sometimes he was there for a moment, sometimes hours, and the longest was for a week – the week that his sister Janet had been born. They would find him reading to her while she was in her crib or hear him singing softly to her when she got cranky. It always felt right and how could either of them send away their son? He belonged with them, for however long.

Presently Daria finished the dishes and got Janet ready for daycare. She and Trent kissed goodbye at her car and both went on their respective ways to work. On her way in she passed the high school and looked at it with a ghost of a smile on her lips. He's growing so fast she thought…..


End file.
